Nipple for infant feeding bottle



y 3, 1955 M. GREENE 2,707,470

NIPPLE FOR INFANT FEEDING BOTTLE Filed June 22. 1954 INVENTOR. Kara/Ls i 'eerye United States Patent M NIPPLE FOR INFANT FEEDING BOTTLE Marcus Greene, Caldwell, N. J.

Application June 22, 1954, Serial No. 438,529

3 Claims. (Cl. 128-452) with the interior of a bottle when attached thereto, and

terminating in its outer portion in a teat-like formation having a small discharge opening or perforation in its end. In use of a nipple of such heretofore known character for infant feeding, the infant exercises suction upon the teat-like formation thereof, whereby to withdraw the t liquid food content'from the feeding bottle through said nipple and thence into the infants mouth through the discharge opening or perforation of said teat-like formation. The suction thus exercised upon the nipple by the feeding infant not infrequently produces a vacuumized condition within the nipple interior, so that the walls of the nipple collapse upon themselves, thus interrupting the outflow of liquid food from the nipple.

Having the above in view, it is an object of this invention to provide a novel construction of nipple which includes means to prevent occurrence of a vacuumized condition within the nipple and consequent collapse thereof.

The invention has for a further object to provide a nursing bottle nipple structure the body of which projects outwardly through the central opening of a nursing bottle cap, said nipple body having a hollow annular base flange adapted to be engaged between said bottle cap and the end of a nursing bottle upon which the cap is detachably screwed, whereby to operatively couple the nipple to the bottle, and said hollow base flange having in its external periphery at least one and preferably a plurality of vacuum breaker openings communicating with the nipple interior.

The above and other objects will be understood from a reading of the following detailed description of my invention in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of a nursing bottle nipple according to my invention; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, taken on line 3-3 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view showing the nipple in operative coupled relation to a nursing bottle.

Referring to the drawings, in which like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts, the nipple according to this invention comprises a hollow body made of suitable resiliently flexible or pliable plastic material, such as rubber, natural or synthetic, a suitable resin plastic or the like. The nipple body is formed to provide a main body section of substantially spherical shape, from the upper or outer end of which extends, as an inte- 2,707,470 Patented May 3, 1955 gral communicating part thereof, a hollow teat-like formation 11. The end wall of said teat-like formation 11 is pierced by a small discharge opening or perforation 12. The bottom or inner end of the main body section 10 is provided with an intake opening 13 of substantially smaller diameter than the maximum diameter of said main body section. Extending outwardly from the marginal portions of the open bottom or inner end-of the main body section 10 is a hollow annular base flange formed by an outwardly projecting top section 14 and an inwardly projecting bottom section 15, the latter being joined to the former by a rounded fold section 16. Said bottom section 15 normally inclines downwardly and inwardly relative to said top section 14, so as to be divergent thereto, and so as to be spaced therefrom by the fold section 16. Said bottom section 15 is resiliently yieldable toward the top section 14 when pressed toward the latter. Provided in the fold section 16 of said hollow base flange is at least one air admission opening or perforation, and preferably a plurality thereof, as shown, spaced circumferentially around the outer periphery of said hollow base flange; said opening or openings 17 serve as means to break any vacuum tending to occur within the interior of the nipple. It will be noted that the lower portion of the spherical main body section 10 of the nipple body inclines inwardly toward and thus converges upon the top section 14 of the hollow base flange, thereby providing an external annular seating groove 18 at the juncture of these parts for purposes about to be explained.

. The above described nipple of this invention is adapted to be operatively assembled with a nursing bottle, the mouth of which is normally closed by a detachable cap, which cap is provided with a central opening through which the main body section 10 of the nipple and its teatlike formation 11 project, as shown in Fig. 4. Referring to Fig. 4, the reference character 20 indicates the upwardly open body of a nursing bottle, to the neck 21 of which a closure cap 22 is detachably engaged, by cooperative connecting means with which said neck and cap are provided. For example, said neck 21 is provided with external screw threads 23 and the cap 22 with cooperative internal screw threads 24. The cap 22 is provided with a central opening 25 of a diameter substantially corresponding to the diameter of the external seating groove 18 with which the hollow body of the nipple is provided. The nipple is mounted in its operative assembled relation to the cap 22 by forcing the main body section 10 of the former through the central opening 25 of the latter, so that the marginal edge portion of the cap opening 25 is received and seated in the external seating groove 18 of the nipple body. When the nipple body is thus assembled with the cap 22, the main body section 10 of the former, with its teat-like formation 11, projects axially outward from said cap, and the hollow base flange of said nipple is disposed to underlie the top wall of said cap.

The nipple being assembled with the cap 22, as above described, after the nursing bottle 20 is supplied with a desired content of liquid food, the cap 22' is screwed onto the neck 21 of the nursing bottle 20. When the cap 22 is screwed home on the bottle neck, the hollow base flange of the nipple is clamped between the top wall of said cap and the rim of the bottle neck, so that the normally divergent bottom section 15 of said hollow base flange is tensionally pressed against said bottle neck rim in sealing engagement therewith, whereby to produce a leak-proof jointure therewith, without collapsing said hollow base flange. It will therefore be obvious that the interior of said hollow base flange remains in open communication with the interior of the nipple. The nursing bottle being thus conditioned for use, as the infant fed therefrom exercises suction upon the teat-like formation 11 of the nipple, any tendency to vacuumize the interior of the nipple, with consequent collapse of the walls of the teat-like formation 11 and resultant stoppage of flow of liquid food therethrough, isinhibited, since vacuum breaking influx of air to the nipple interior, through the peripheral opening or openings 17 of the hollow base flange of the nipple, will occur. Air for influx through said vacuum breaker opening or openings 17 will be admitted between the cap 22 and bottle neck 21, since the threaded interconnection of these parts does not effect an air tight joint.

From the above, it will now be apparent that the nipple structure of this invention, as operatively assembled with a nursing bottle and its closure cap, is proof against occurrence of an internal vacuumized condition and resultant collapse.

Having now described my invention, I claim:

1. A nursing bottle nipple made of resiliently pliable plastic material comprising a downwardly open spheroidal main body section adapted to project axially outward through a central opening of a nursing bottle closure cap, a hollow teat-like formation projecting from the outer end of said main body section, said teat-like formation having a discharge perforation in its free end, said main body section having an outwardly extending, inwardly open hollow annular base flange adapted to be sealingly engaged between the nursing bottle and its closure cap, and said base flange having at least one air admission vacuum breaker opening in its external periphery.

2. A nursing bottle nipple made of resiliently pliable plastic material comprising a downwardly open spheroidal main body section adapted to project axially outward through a central opening of a nursing bottle closure cap, a hollow teat-like formation projecting from the outer end of said main body section, said teat-like formation iii having a discharge perforation in its free end, said main body section having an outwardly extending, inwardly open hollow annular base flange adapted to be sealingly engaged between the nursing bottle and its closure cap, said base flange comprising a horizontal top section and upwardly yieldable bottom section divergent to and downwardly spaced from said top section and joined to the latter by fold section constituting the external periphery of the base flange, and said fold section having at least one air admission vacuum breaker opening communicating through the hollow base flange with the nipple interior.

3. A nursing bottle nipple made of resiliently pliable plastic material comprising a downwardly open spheroidal main body section adapted to project axially outward through a central opening of a nursing bottle closure cap, a hollow teat-like formation projecting from the outer end of said main body section, said teat-like formation having a discharge perforation in its free end, said main body section having an outwardly extending, inwardly open hollow annular base flange adapted to be sealingly engaged between the nursing bottle and its closure cap, said base flange comprising a horizontal top section and an upwardly yieldable bottom section divergent to and downwardly spaced from said top section and joined to the latter by fold section constituting the external periphery of the base flange, and said fold section having a plurality of circumferentially spaced air admission vacuum breaker openings communicating through the hollow base flange with the nipple interior.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,175,054 Dunfee Mar. 14, 1916 

